Saturday, 26 July 2008

The serial number of 50 sen bird definitive has moved up to 2007/7. So, seven batches of printing for the 50 sen bird definitive in year 2007 have been recorded. I'm not sure how many more batches of printing for the 50 sen bird definitive in 2007...... we just have to wait until the appearance of series number 2008 to make a conclusion for year 2007. On the other hand, the 30 sen bird definitive has reached series number 2008/2 (http://kajang-stamps.blogspot.com/2008/07/2005-bird-definitives-30sen-20082.html).

Friday, 25 July 2008

The agro-based product state definitives were issued on 25 October, 1986. Seven different denominations portraying seven different agricultural products were released. 1c is coffee, 2c is coconut, 5c is cocoa, 10c is black pepper, 15c is rubber, 20c is oil palm and 30c is rice. The denominations 15c and 20c were the two most commonly used denominations in the series at that time.

The agro-based product series can be considered the longest running issue of the modern Malaysian definitive issues since the orchid state series in 1965. Not surprisingly, many reprints have been emerged for the last 20 years since the release of this series, in particular for the period of 1993-1999. Due to the pending of the release of the new state definitives (it only came out on 31 December, 2007; the info of the new state definitive issue can be found at http://kajang-stamps.blogspot.com/2008/01/malaysia-new-state-definitives.html), the printing of the agro-based product definitives was done in a small quantity and at ad hoc basis. Some of these reprints survived in a very short time. Thus, this has inflated the value of these stamps generally.

Perforation variation is the most prominent change in these reprints. The original stamps have a perforation of 12. Other perforations such as 14 X 13.75, 14 X 14.5, 14.75 X 14.5 and 13.5 X 13.75 have also come into existence in the reprints. Apart from the perforation, variations in gum (cream, blue, green and mottled) and watermark (inverted, missing and sideway) have also been recorded on these stamps. It seems to be the case that all these varieties are mostly recorded in most used denominations - 5c, 10c, 20c and 30c. Stamps with denominations of 1c, 2c and 15c have long been ceased from production. Thus, these denominations do not contain too many varieties.

These state defintives were printed in a sheet of 100 stamps. Each corner margin of a sheet is printed with plate number and colour guide. The printing of plate number on the sheet margin will identify the batch of printing of the stamps, hence can trace the stamps back to the source and time of printing. The first batch of printing, when these stamps were released in 1986, had a plate number 1A, and the number had since been moving up to the last plate number of 14A. The collecting of plate number of these agro-based series has been challenging and exciting indeed. This is partly attributed to the difficulty in getting corner margin block of 4 from post office counters as margins of stamp sheet are normally torn off before the stamps are sold at the counters. Asking one clerk at a post office counter about the practice of tearing off margins, she told me that this is to prevent customers from littering and sticking torn-off margins on walls and tables.

To add more fun to the agro-based definitives, two prominent changes happened in the reprints much later involving two states - agro-based definitives of Sarawak had its state crest changed officially on September 1, 1993 and new sultan portrait of Terengganu appeared on the reprints in 1998. Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin was crowned on May 15, 1998 as the sultan of Terengganu due to the departure of his Majesty's father Sultan Mahmud Al Muktafi Billah Shah.

The fun of collecting the agro-based reprints does not stop here. Started in 2002, the currency unit c in the stamps was replaced by sen. A few states issued this type of reprints, and the plate number system on the printing of sheet margins has been also replaced by the system of series number. I shall talk about this in some other time.

Monday, 21 July 2008

The highest value of definitive stamp currently used is the papaya stamp (RM20). The stamp was issued in 1986 together with 7 other denominations (40c, 50c, 80c, $1, $2, $5 and $10; images of different fruits). All these fruit stamps have gradually been replaced by the new bird definitive stamps since 2005, except the denominations 40c, $10 and $20. The initial fruit stamps used currency units of c and $, but latter these were replaced by sen and RM respectively. Up to date, 6 denominations have the currency designation change i.e. 40sen, 50sen, RM1, RM2, RM10 and RM20. Apart from this change in the reprints, change in watermark was also recorded. Denominations RM2, RM5, RM10 and RM20 initially were printed in Harrison & Son watermarked paper using photogravure approach. On the other hand, the reprints of the denominations have SPM watermarked and were printed using lithography approach. Change in perforation has also been recorded in reprints of all the denominations.

Original prints of $20 papaya stamps with plate number 1A-1D. Harrison & Son watermarked paper

reprints of the RM20 papaya stamps with series number 2002/01. SPM watermarked paper

Tuesday, 15 July 2008

It has been quite some time I did not check the number series of the bird definitives. I was totally occuppied...... I wouldn't be surprised to see that the 30 sen bird stamp has reached the serial number 2008/2. I just got this series number of the 30 sen bird stamp for my collection.

Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah was installed as the Sultan of Kedah in 1958. His Royal Highness is celebrating the golden jubilee of the coronation in 2008. Pos Malaysia released a set of three stamps to commemorate the event on 15 July, 2008. They are 30 sen stamp depicting the Gunung Jerai and the paddy field of the foot of Gunung Jerai; 50 sen stamp portraying the old office of the State Secretary of the Kedah Government; and RM1 stamp showing the town view of Alor Setar.

The stamps were printed in the format of 22 stamps per sheetlet. This is an uncommon format as commemorative stamps have been normally printed in sheetlet of 20 stamps for the past six years. The use of different pin-hole machines on the same sheetlet of this issue had created stamps with three types of perforation: P12, P13.5 and P13.5 but P12 at bottom. The number of stamps of these different perforations is not even. For each sheetlet, two stamps will have perforation P13.5 but P12 at bottom, four stamps with perforation P13.5 and 16 stamps with perforation P12.

Friday, 4 July 2008

ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2007. All the ten member countries of ASEAN released a set of stamps to commomerate this event. The design of the stamps is similar for all the issuing countries, 10 different designs with motif of buildings. A brief information on the 40th anniversary of ASEAN can be viewed at http://kajang-stamps.blogspot.com/2007/08/40-years-of-asean-malaysia-perspective.html. For Malaysia, the building portrayed in the stamp set is Malayan Railway Headquaters in Kuala Lumpur. The date of issue for these stamps varies from one country to the other. However, most the countries released these stamps on 8 August, 2007. Pos Malaysia released the stamp set on 8 August, 2007. Presented below are those stamp images of Malayan Railway Headquaters issued by the ten member countries of ASEAN.

Thursday, 3 July 2008

The stamp issue of nocturnal animals was released on 13 March, 2008. Four different stamps and a miniature sheet were issued. The detail of the stamp issue can be viewed at http://kajang-stamps.blogspot.com/2008/03/2008-nocturnal-animals.html. Actually, a limited imperforated miniature sheet was issued, but it was only available later through SODA (Standing Order Account) order. However, due to lack of demand, the left-over copies are being sold at the philatelic counter of GPO Kuala Lumpur.

Tuesday, 1 July 2008

I received a beautiful registered cover from Portugal a few days ago. I really like this cover as it has many ATM stamps, and not to forget the two nice bird stamps on the cover, and the unique registered label with EURO 0.22 printed on it. The ATM stamps were issued on 30 May 2008. The cover was postmarked on 7 June 2008 from Amadora.